So that surprised the hell out of me! I know I’m just an out of it, part time geek/gamer, but I thought Rockstar Games was sweeping this mess under the rug and cutting it’s losses. It’s seems like Rockstar and the ESRB have come to an understanding behind closed doors. Manhunt 2 will be released on October 31st Halloween (pretty cool). Though I wonder what changed? Did they edit the game or did they grease some palms?

What ever happened between Rockstar and the ESRB didn’t impress California Senator Leland Yee, because he’s launching his own investigation of this “Re-Rating” from Adults only (AO) to Mature over 17 (rated M). Senator Yee has a history of bustin’ the balls of the evil and violent gaming industry. As a matter of fact he had legislation passed (which was overturned) restricting the sale of violent games to minors. US District Judge Ronald Whyte said “The Act regulates video games, which, even though mere entertainment, are nonetheless protected by the First Amendment.” So since Senaror Yee couldn’t make his restriction law happen he’s up the ESRB’s ass.
“Parents can’t trust a rating system that doesn’t even disclose how they come to a particular rating,” said Yee. “The ESRB and Rockstar should end this game of secrecy by immediately unveiling what content has been changed to grant the new rating and what correspondence occurred between the ESRB and Rockstar to come to this conclusion. Unfortunately, history shows that we must be quite skeptical of these two entities.”
Yee said that the ESRB is funded by the gamemakers themselves (who pay to have their games rated), creating a conflict of interest. Publishers are essentially the ESRB’s customers, but giving a game an AO rating cripples its chances of financial success; most retailers refuse to stock such games, and console makers don’t allow publishers to release AO-rated games on their systems.
Wow! Don’t f*#k with YEE!!!! He’s gonna tear the roof of that scamming ESRB. I think that the boys from Rockstar brought in a couple of Bangkok hookers to give the entire ESRB rim jobs….on Rockstar of course. Thats how they got the rating down to M. I think Senator Yee will expose the lying, cheating, stealing world of gaming politics! It’ll be just like the episode Geraldo where he opened Al Capone’s secret vault on live TV… and there was nothing in the f*#kin thing! What a DICK!!

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Technorati Tags: Rockstar Games, ESRB, Manhunt 2, Halloween, California Senator Leland Yee, Re-Rating, AO, rated M, legislation, violent games, US District Judge Ronald Whyte, First Amendment, rating system, gamemakers, Publishers, Bangkok

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 2:37 am and is filed under General News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.